In Moscow on Tuesday, youth from more than twenty parties and civic organizations announced plans for the creation of a Youth Public Chamber (Молодёжная Общественная Палата). The organization, which will be independent from the Public Chamber created by the Kremlin, will have its opening session on 18 May 2006, Itar-Tass reported (11/April/06).
The Youth Public Chamber is to be more humanitarian than political. It will focus on a diverse array of issues, from fighting military hazing, to education and health reform. The organization, according to Moskovskii Komsomolets, also hopes to develop its own politically themed reality show called “The Delegate.”
According to organizers the project will be “an independent institution of civil society,” representing an “alternative to youth street politics” (Nezavisimaya Gazeta). The organization could be a further attempt by the Kremlin to draw breath from a small, but vociferous band of young Putin opponents who have adopted street protests and rallies as their primary political tool. The Kremlin has long been concerned about the rise in protest actions by young political activists. Such demonstrations tend to stoke the Putin Administration’s fears of Orange Revolution in Russia.
According to Yuri Afonin, however, “this initiative does not come from the top.” The leader of the League of Communist Youth insists that young political and civic leaders have taken the initiative to create and develop the new organization by themselves. (Itar-Tass)
However, as the left-wing Trud newspaper (12/April/06, № 064) points out, Dmitri Gudkov, son of People’s Party leader Gennady Gudkov and Aleksei Rogozin, son of Rodina Party leader Dmitry Rogozin, are among the founding members. Gydkov, at least, contests that his father has nothing to do with the MOP. “We agreed that in my own political work I will be fully self-sufficient,” said Gydkov, interviewed by NG.
Also among the 26 current members are representatives from Young Guard (the youth wing of the party of power United Russia), the Communist Party, the radical Liberal Democratic Party and the Social Democrats. Interestingly, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports that there are no members from Yabloko or the Union of Right Forces, Russia’s most prominent, though disenfranchised, liberal parties.
According to Anton Nazarov, a member of the Council of Academic Councils of Moscow State University people aged 18-35 will be eligible for membership, though individuals from extremist groups like the National Bolshevik Party will be barred (Itar-Tass). Incidentally, a Moscow court today again denied the NBP registration as an official political party.